On the way out of the courtroom, family and friends hugged Dr. William Petit Jr., the lone survivor of the 2007 Cheshire home invasion and murders of his wife and daughers.

And why not? It had been a grueling eight days of testimony inside the New Haven courthouse. Each day, and seemingly each witness, offered some new horrific detail of the depravity inflicted on the family.

Before the defense and prosecution rested Tuesday, a corrections officer detailed a sickening conversation between Hayes and a fellow inmate.

Except that wasn't nearly the end.

Next comes the penalty phase, which could be just as grueling, if not more, than the trial.And then we get to relive all the gut wrenching details all over again with the trial of the second suspect, Joshua Komisarjevsky.

We already got a taste of what the defense is going to be. One monster pitted against another. Komisarjevsky was the real monster. No, Hayes was the real monster.

Pure nonsense.

But for now, here we are. At the end of testimony in one trial, but nowhere near the end of the nightmare.